1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to a relay assembly having a header or pedestal. More particularly, the header or pedestal has a flat bottom or floor part with ribs applied at the upperside thereof and guide channels proceeding through to the underside. The relay assembly also has a coil member which carries a winding, a core, a yoke and an armature. The coil member rests on the floor part of the header and includes two flanges with downwardly extending projections applied to the flanges. At least one of the flanges has a receptacle for at least one stationary cooperating contact element. The coil member also has plug elements conducted through to the underside of the floor part in the guide channels in the header, the plug elements being for the cooperating contact element, for connections to the winding and for at least one moveable contact element coupled to the armature.
2. Description of the Related Art
A relay having a plug header is disclosed, for example, in German published application No. 34 28 595. The header of the relay occupies only the area under the magnet system in a traditional fashion and the connector elements for excitation of the relay and for the contact elements all emerge from the header in one region under the magnet system. The disclosed relay includes flat plugs in the plug header either plugged into a correspondingly adapted plug-in socket which has individual wiring for the terminals or the individual flat plugs of the relay are connected with individual lines via cable or wire sockets. Such relays are not designed for connection to multi-lead cables with multi-pole plug-type connectors.
In the application of relays of the above type in various fields, such as motor vehicle technology, the need frequently arises for the relay to be easily interchangeable. Such relays, operating as switch assemblies, are connected with a control arranged remote therefrom and with one or more users, such as a pump motor or a lamp group also arranged at a different location. This has hitherto been possible only by individually connecting the flat plugs which emerge from the relay header in a tightly interleaved arrangement with cable sockets. When, for example, one wishes to replace the user, which may, for example, be a motor, then the motor posts have to be sought out for the various terminals and the appertaining cable sockets pulled off. The reverse operation is then required for connection of the new motor.